Desert Titans
by Omicron the IceQueen
Summary: Trade- A Toa of stone fines out its hard enough fighting one Rahkshi is hard enough, Add a second one that's a Rahkshi King... yeah, that's an interesting night.


**Queen's notes**\- This takes place just after the betrayal of the Brother of the Makua. But remember not all did that... 8D I love playing with Cannon TidBits

I know there's not much of an ending, I'm a bit stumped on it and as soon as I have one I'll up date this. This is my belated trade to Ewered on Deviantart, She did an amazing picture of Kora Tala

**Desert Titans**

The sun had almost completely dipped under the horizon, painting not only the land in purples and reds but the rare thunderhead above the land as well. The storm looked like it had already let it's contained water free to the north and it would take a few minutes before it reached the path he walked.

When the water finally fell, it can in warm sheets that washed over crusted sand, rocks, loose quirt crystals and natural formed protodermis shards. It and finally descend on the green armor. Its spines folded down and then slowly rose up at the still cooling rain. The being rose up to his full height and sniffed at the air, water running down his frame and even getting into the normally dry holding chamber.

The creature lowered back down into a hunching stance that was comfortable for him. Steam rose up off both of the ground as well as the sun backed green and grey armor.

As the night closed in on the land, on all those that lived, and traveled on it, the air was filled with the thick, rich sent of hot, wet stone. There was also slightly sharper smell of heated and wet protodermis. Unknowingly two very different beings were enjoying the storm, the green creature that some would consider a nightmare was even more pleased with the darkness.

A set of multiple jaws extended and spread as this creature yawned a fang filled gape, swinging his spear blades in hand. The staff had long since broken centuries ago, but it seemed this being prefer his weapon as it was now.

The Rahkshi gave himself a shake to get some of the water off his face as he approached the cavern entrance he was guarding. There was a shifting of lesser, younger, Rahkshi were still hiding from the last traces of the fading day light that tried to cling to the underside of the clouds. Crouching low, the green King braced knuckles on the ground to be at the same level, chittering and buzzing as if he and the red ones were exchanging news.

One of the smaller ones hissed and skittered off deeper into the cavern, his odd loping steps fading the deeper underground the Rahkshi whent. The second, more orange-red Rahkshi stepped outside as the green Leshi turned at headed to the rock formation in the middle of the cavern entrance.

The opening looked more like a cross of an overhang cliff face and a bay-shape, with a tide of sand that rolled in and out a few feet on a slow motion yearly cycle. The sand was an off shade of white, like the sounding, smooth cliff faces that the cavern entrance was hidden in.

There was plenty of room for Leshi and his brothers to pace, or more often than not grapple and wrestle in what was, for them, a mix of training and just playtime. In the center of it all was that rock formation that had been chipped and carved away until it was comfortable for Rahkshi bodies to lounge on.

Leshi tucked his blades into holding slots on his armor before pressing his hands on the rocks as the smaller Rahkshi loped out into the desert night. Out from under his hands there was a pulse of elemental energy, extending out to curl around the rocks, leaving behind a thinking layer of moss. Tiny flowers, the size of claw tips, of the same color of the white sand sprouted out of the dark green while the Rahkshi King moved and sprawled out in his new cushion.

Pale yellow eyes peered out the only entrance to the tiny box canyon, board out of his mind just like anyone else that had been stuck with guard duty all day and night. And the night before.

Leshi picked some of the flowers in the moss to nibble on, re-growing them or those of different colors, lit they had different flavors. If they did, the Rahkshi seemed to prefer the white ones as he lounged on the slanted moss covered rock his front.

Sprouts of grass started to form in the combination of elemental energy being used, what was left over to cover that rock formation in the first place, and the rain still giving the desert a good drink.

A semi distant shriek had Leshi barely lifting his head, looking in the general direction of the Rahkshi scream. He wasn't too concerned at first, the younger generations of his kind that made it into armor were still... excitable. He'd learned a thousand years ago that ninety percent of the time the alarm calls of his younger brothers where at just strange looking rocks, trees, harmless Rahi, and even the occasional Matoran... in those cases a King Rahkshi like him had to go and smack the smaller Rahkshi and drag it away from the frighten Matoran.

Mother did not like her sons scaring their charges.

So Leshi only listen with half an ear to the sounds going on under the storm, assuming that one or two brothers were returning from dark hiding places they had retreated to, to wait out the day. The younger Rahkshi couldn't stand being in sunlight for more than a few minutes. As such now and then a Rahkshi was stuck curled up in a small cave, buried in the sand or abandoning its armor to hide in a crevasse, and the fallowing night emerging to return home.

With that reason and semi-nightly occurrence, Leshi didn't bother to move.

At least until another scream had turned painful.

The large, flat and green head lifted up, attention diverted away from the flowers and sharpening his hearing beyond the constant pattering on his armor. The soft vibrations nice in the holding chamber but it was also very loud to the Kraata inside.

Pushing up Leshi gave himself a shake and with spines fairing up he moved out into the desert storm's darkness. Spear blades in hand he crouched low, tilting his head to find the red Rahkshi's tracks, but there were a few and with the rain softening the ground it was hard to tell which where which. Leaving him with fallowing sound, seeming near useless at the moment but he tried.

Leshi moved left to right and back, trying to track down what might have been a fight, and though he could tell it wasn't like a Rahkshi vs Rahkshi spat... he didn't know where it was coming _from_. Or who the other opponent was.

There weren't very many beings in the Matoran Universe that _could_ fight his kind. Let alone who or what would _wanted_ to fight his kind.

The green creature paused, dropping into a crouch again to press his knuckles down against the wet sand to feel a new kind of vibrations. There was something familiar with it, or in the pattern of the vibrations.

Frustrated, Leshi sprawled out onto his front, as much as he could do, trying to get his head against the ground.

"SCRREEEECHE!"

Leshi jerked, the King giving a reflexive yawl himself as the orange-red Rahkshi from before, impacted onto sand beside him. It teetered, balancing on the hunched back, the spines missing, and fell over to the left. The King started to push himself up, growling reflexively as a simmering anger started to grow inside. Enough that the true Kraata squirmed in its protective case independently from the mechanical body.

That was one of his direct brothers! Even in scent they were related- not something seen that often, and a potential future King.

Pulling one leg up under him, Leshi started the motions of getting up. Fully intending on beating this mystery being into the ground when two things happened at the same time. First he saw the open case-pod where the other, younger Kraata would have been crawling out of- incensed and livid of being jarred out, but nothing was emerging out.

He leaned forward to see the case was _empty_, and then looking up as the sand and pebbles shifted under Lechi and he turned to see where the movement was going…

And the desert floor, rippled like a retreating tide, draining like water before the wave, as big as or bigger than Lechi's brothers Rook and Keto when standing.

The Rahkshi let out a bellow, though admittedly it wasn't as challenging or threating as one might think. Coming out more like, "Crraaa_eeeiiiiii!"_

The wave of wet sand and rocks crashed into the green and red frames. Knocking Lechi into a horizontal avalanche in times with one, two, and then three much bigger tremors. The familiarity from before turned to recognition as the surges of elemental energy could only be controlled by a Toa. With each wave of sand Lechi could feel more and more weight pressing down on him. Enough that he pulled his head back into the safety of his pod in the armor with panic thrumming through his Kraata form.

As Leshi struggled to get his air systems turned on inside the armor so not to suffocate, the dessert resettled as if the ground hadn't just acted like water. Another being walked closer, panting as he held his side.

Bioluminescent eyes scanned around, glowing gold-red and yellow in the dark after the inner lids opened. Still sucking air in the Toa staggered back, and to the side, leaning on one of the many boulders that littered this dessert island.

Dahrek looked down at his other hand, clasping a tube with a Kraata inside. The squirming slowing as it was effected by the stasis field. He had to get another for the mission, and was starting to regret not coming to this island without help.

He backed up and debated how long to wait, also wondering as he checked his wound if that last Rahkshi's bulk had been a trick of the low light, or a rain illusion and not as big as it seemed like it was. Dahrek had enough trouble with the red even using some of his Kanohi-Pakari, the Toa's mask of strength. The Makuta sons weren't easy opponents... and deep in the heart-light it was a scary thing to realize these creatures were now an enemy.

Dahrek rolled so his back was to the boulder, letting the stasis tube drop harmlessly to the sand. He focused on taking several deep breaths, not seeing the moss starting to grow in the sand where the Rahkshi was buried. The Toa of stone looked down and pulled his right hand back to look at his injury. Purple shaded blood was already stopping oozing out as nanites in the Toa's system worked on closing the bite mark. After checking as much as he could see, Dahrek flexed his hands, grimacing at seeing his claws had taken a beating in the fight, three were missing, two cracked.

It wasn't easy to break solid, protodurmus Toa claws, nor the reinforced armor where the bite mark was.

At least is was over, and he could get the second Kraata in some odd minutes for his mission. After the creature was subdued into a hibernation state to survive the lack of breathable air.

Dakrek blinked down near his feet, watching a green-blue vine threading its way past. With an uneasy feeling he turned to fallow the line with his eyes, bright red, and white orbs widening over a back drop or orange. The mound of sand was now covered in a thick layer of plant life, moss, vines and odd sapling that were pushing up from the mound of wet sands.

The plant life pushed the sands away enough that Dakrek saw the arm length spines rising up out of the ground, where they should have been burred a half or a full body length in depth under the surface in the sand. The dark green hunch of the Rahkshi's back and armored pod pushed up after the spines, it showed the size of the creature far bigger then hopped it would be. Grasping the ever growing root system that the Rahkshi was making to free himself, Leshi first _pulled_ on them and then pushed up. Channeling the roots to net themselves under him next to get footing and _pushed_ in one last, desperate attempt to get air. The sand cascaded away from the pod, and it hissed as the systems struggled to exchange fresh air, even as sand clogged the air vents.

Dakrek took a step back, the inner lids opening so the glow of his eyes where clearly visible as he stared at the giant monster admits the twisting, arching and flowering mass that looked like a primal, wild wahi made thrown. That was a fitting way to see it, some part of the Toa's mind realized this was not that far off, as he watched the Rahkshi give a half screech, half garbled cry as it split the forepod open to _breath_.

Reacting on battle instincts, as well as a surge of adrenalin (enough was in his systems to keel over two smaller human bodies) had Dakrek letting go of his side. The sets of tri-claws on his forearms snapped forward, there was a crackle of golden-tan elemental energy over brown armor as the Toa stepped back again, and then forward. His Pakari, the Kanohi of strength activated at the same time the Toa drove his claws down. The combination created a tremor that knocked the already unsteady Rahkshi off his green feet.

Unknown to them both the tremor made it back down past the sand layer to the protodurmus mines below. There several beings, Onu Matoran and their protectors looked up. The two local Toa exchanged looks before turning to the bigger being that stood up.

"Makuta?" The pale Toa, asked.

"Mother?" Root asked almost at the same time as the Rahkshi king rose from the widget game the two were playing.

Tail uncurling the grey and white rahi-creator stood up from her thrown, looking up. The Matuka flicked her tail and grasped the staff from its stand and motioned for her guard to come. Something was going on and needed to be investigated, more so with another tremor vibrating loose pebbles in the chamber.


End file.
